Off-road vehicles such as the Jeep® Wrangler® and CJ® are popular among outdoor enthusiasts because of their rugged build and appearance and consequent ability to move over terrain where other vehicles cannot tread. The Wrangler® and CJ® models have open passenger compartments and an open rear compartment. Factory soft tops are available for these vehicles that can be manually attached to the vehicle with snaps, a belt rail system, locking tabs, and the like to enclose the passenger and rear compartments. Factory tops, however, are cumbersome to install and can require several minutes for complete deployment.
Some past attempts to create an easily deployable soft top for the Jeep® Wrangler® and CJ® have been made, but with limited success. Applicant believes, for example, that Chrysler once attempted to offer a powered top for these vehicles, but that product is no longer available. U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,643 of Barker discloses a manually deployable soft top that attaches to the floor of the rear compartment and is deployable from a folded configuration in the rear compartment to a deployed configuration covering the passenger and rear compartments of the vehicle. This product too has met with limited success.
One problem in designing a deployable top for the Jeep® Wrangler® and CJ® vehicles is that the rear edges of the back doors in four-door models are very close to the rear compartment, where a retractable top would naturally be stowed. Further, the top edges of the doors are relatively high compared to the height of the belt rail surrounding the rear compartment. As a consequence, a retractable top for these vehicles must deploy first upwardly from the rear compartment virtually to its complete unfolded configuration and then pivot downwardly intact over the passenger compartment. This has heretofore been a significant challenge. Further, the sides of the top rails must spread out as the top pivots downwardly primarily because the passenger compartment of Jeep® brand vehicles is slightly wider at its rear end than at its front end. The top rails also need to spread to accommodate door edges, roll bars, and other features of the vehicle. As the top approaches full deployment, the top rails must narrow back together. Accommodating this motion also is a challenge. Other challenges unique to these vehicles also exist.
A need therefore exists for a retractable and deployable top for Jeep® Wrangler® and CJ® vehicles, and perhaps other appropriate vehicles, that addresses the above and other challenges. Such a top should be retractable to a stowed configuration where it is out of the way for enjoyment of the open top feature the vehicles, but should be quickly and easily deployable to cover the passenger and rear compartments of the vehicle. Hydraulic or electric actuators should be optionally available to incorporate into the top such that the top can be deployed and retracted automatically at the press of a button. It is to the provision of a retractable and deployable top that meets these and additional needs that the present disclosure is primarily directed.